Mail-service apparatus.



Patentod May 6, |902.

No. Samoa.

G. A. OWEN.

MAIL SERVICE APPARATUS.

(Application med mr. 1a, 1899.)

(No Nudel.)

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G. A. OWEN.

MAIL SEHVIGE APPARATUS.

(Application led Har. 13, 1899.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

Patented May 6, |902.

3 Sheets- Shadi 3.

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GEORGE ALFRED OWEN, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

MAIL-SERVICE APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 699,408, dated May 6, 1902.

Application tiled March 1S, 1899. Serial No. 708,984. (No model.)

To all whom t ntay concern.'

Be it known that I, GEORGE ALFRED OWEN, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Service Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to provisions for facilitating the inail service in apartmenthouses and other buildings, and contemplates means whereby mail-matter to be delivered into various apartments on different floors of the building may be placed in a suitable conveyer or elevator by the porter or other person at the lower floor, and whereby the same after being elevated to the proper floors is automatically discharged into the room, and, furthermore, whereby an audible signaling of such delivery may be accomplished.

The invention consists in the provisions and arrangements of means and the constructions and combinations of parts cooperating for the desired effects, all substantially as will hereinafter fully appear and be set forth in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which an exemplification of means for carrying out my invention is shown and in which- Figure l is a perspective view showing the corridor or entrance or reception-hall of an apartment-house or other building, wherein is shown the lower end of a combined hoistway for letters to be'delivered to the occupants of the different floors of said building and the :mailing-chute,` together with the detachable portable receiver for the letters or other mail-matter, to be iinally mailed in an adjacent street letter-box. Fig. 2 is a sectional view vertically through the hoistway, showing the elevating and self-discharging mechanism for the letters for delivery at different iloors otv the building, the mailingchute also being shown, as is also a portion of the mail-receiving box at the lower end of the hoistway orwell in which the mailingchute is by preference located. Fig.3 is a vertical sectional view taken on a plane at right angles to Fig. 2 through the lower portion of` the hoistway and the mailing-chute. Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the interior of a portion of the hoistway for the elevating mail-conveyer and the deliveryopening communicating with the apartment, upwardly past which the -hoistway extends, this View-illustrating the method of releasing the letters to be discharged through said opening at the correct instant. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the portion of the mechanical elevating mail-carrier as seen at theopposite side from that shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is in part a face view and in part a vertical sectional view transversely of the axis of rotatable actuating mechanismemployed for imparting the progressive movement to the mechanical mail carrier. Fig. 7 is a sectional view on the plane of the axis of the part shown in Fig. 6, and in this gure (l 6 is the section-line indicating the plane on which the preceding figure is taken.

The same or corresponding parts are designated by like characters throughout the drawings.

In the drawings, A represents a suitablyconstructed well or hoistway in the building, in which way is inclosed the elevator or mechanical mail-carrier B for the letters to be delivered, respectively, through openings, such as shown at ct, Figs. 2 and 4, in the side of the hoistway, which openings communicate into apartments on different doors one above another in the line of the'elevator-Way. The hoistway A, comprised 'within the suitable vertical casing, preferably of metal, has at its lower portion, which is in the reception-hall or entrance ot the apartment-house, as indicated in Fig. l, the opening through its side, (shown at 5,) for which is provided the hinged door c. The elevating device (represented by the general letter B) will be now described in respect ot" its details.

2O and 22 represent support and drive wheels suitably j ournaled, one at the bottom and the other at or near the top of the way A, around which runs the suitably long endless chain 23 or other flexible support for the letter-holders d, each of which consists in the back 24, having the lower portion 25 thereof outwardly IOO turned atan obtuse angle to the upper portion, which is riveted or otherwise suitably attached to the widened lugs 27, formed on 01' fixed to a link of the carrier-chain, and the opposite member 23,l which bears against the back member with a yielding pressure and is adapted to be opened for the insertion of a letter or letters between it and such back. As shown, the main or back member of the letter-holderhas the forwardly-extending earpieces 29, constituting the supports for the journal-rod 30 of the movable member 28 of the holder, the spring 32 being applied in a well-known manner as common in various forms of clips or clamps for maintaining the same closed.

33 represents the operating extension for the clip.

The journal-rod 30 has at its end a comparatively short lever-arm 34, to coact with which is a fixed stud or abutment provided in a suitable position in the hoistway adjacent the path of the lever-arm. As shown in Fig. 2, at the lower portion thereof, the lever-arms 34 for the several Vletter-holder clips are of different lengths, the upper one being shorter than the one next below, each lower one being slightly longer than the preceding, so that each letter-holder will not be automatically opened until it has reached the opening et in the hoistway at the particular iioor to which such holder corresponds.

Extendingfrom the lower edge of the opening a in the hoistway is a shelf 37, slanting downwardly and outwardly into the room, having at its lower edge the ledge 38, and this shelf has at its rear edge the sectional member 39, forming a continuation of the shelf inclining upwardly into the way A. Said hinged shelf extension has the limiting lug 40, against which operates the spring 42. This said extension provides that when the letters are released from the le tter-holder they will be guided down onto the shelf proper. The portion of the shelf down onto which the letters pass is provided with the slot 43, through which projects the light spring-contact 44 and adjacent which is the fixed contact 45. These contacts are comprised in a normally open circuit, constituted by the wiring 46, in which is connected the local battery 47 and the signaling-bell 48 with the usual form of vibrating striker, all so that when a letter comes down on the shelfit forces spring 44 onto contact 45, closing the circuit and ringing the bell to notify the occupant of the apartment into which the letter is delivered of the arrival thereof. The shelf extension is hinged, as shown, for the purpose of giving way to the letter-holders as they successively pass it.

After the porter or other attendant has placed the mail-matter properly in the respective letter-holders of the carrier through lower opening b he gives a progressive motion to the carrier-chain by reciprocating the lever 49. The lever is fixed on the rock-shaft 50, which is provided with the lever-arm 52, located within the hoistway and having attached to its free swinging end the strap 51, which has a winding arrangement around,and connection with, the cylindrical shell or drum 53, loose on the arbor 54 for sprocket-wheel 20. The drum 53 is provided internally with the ratchet-teeth 55, which engage to force in one direction the spring pawl 56 on the sprocket-wheel. The spring 57 imparts the reversed motion tothe drum. Each time the lever 49 is swung in the forward direction it, through the strap, rotates the drum, forcing by the ratchet-wheel engaging the sprocketwheel pawl the ratchet-wheel forward. Then as the lever 49 is reversely swung and the strap slackened the drum by its spring is reversely rotationally moved, the ratchet-teeth clicking past the pawl to be in readiness for the repetition of the stated action derived from the swinging impulse of the lever 49. The letter-holders aft-er being elevated to the top of the building pass around the upper sprocket-wheel 22 and then return to and around the lower sprocket and assume their positions opposite the opening b for the reception of the next several letters to be respectively placed therein for upward transmission and automatic delivery, as before.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

. 1. In a mail-service, the combination of a hoistway, a carrier movable therein; a plate secured to the carrier and having an inclined deilecting por-tion, a clamping member pivoted to the plate transversely of the carrier; means for retaining the clamping member in its closed position; an arm on the clamping member ext-ending transversely to the carrier; and means located in the hoistway for tripping said arm and thereby opening the clamping member.

2. .In a mail-service, the combination of a hoistway,a carrier movable therein; the plate, 24, secured to the carrier and having the inclined deflecting portion 25; the clamping member, 2S, pivoted to the plate, 24, transversely of the carrier; means for retaining the clamping member in its closed position; the arm, 33, on the clamping member extending transversely to the carrier; and means located in the hoistway for tripping said arm and thereby opening the clamping member.

3. In a mail-service, a building having the hoistway, wheels 20 and 22 therein and an endless flexible carrier around said wheels, letter-holders mounted on said flexible carrier, and the journal-shaft 54 on which the said wheel 20 is mounted, the rock-shaft 50 and means for rocking it, and connections between said rock-shaft and said shaft 54 for imparting from the rocking movement of the former a step-by-step motion to the latter, for the purpose set forth.

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4. In a mail-service in combination, the ment around said drum, and the spring-pawl hoistway having the upper and lower wheels mounted on the Wheel 20, as shown. 1o 22 and 20, the shaft 54 on which the latter is Signed by me at Springfield, Massachusetts, fixed, the rock-shaft 50 having the operatingthis 27th day of January, 1899. lever 49 and the lever-arm 52, the drum 53 GEORGE ALFRED OWEN. provided with the ratchet-teeth and the re- I Vitnesses:

Versing-spring 57, and the strap 5l secured to VM. S. BELLOWS,

said arm 52 and having a winding engage- I M. A. CAMPBELL. 

